How to Improve Brain Health: Eat These 6 Foods

March is National Nutrition Month! As we discussed in our National Nutrition Month kick off article, the saying “you are what you eat” doesn’t just apply to our physical well-being. Among many other things, it has now been shown that there is a link between diet and brain health. So, today’s article is all about how to improve your brain health by including a few delicious foods in your diet.

That’s right.

Simply making a few intentional choices related to our nutrition can result in significant improvement to the health of our brains.

That means improved cognitive function, better memory, and more.

There are huge rewards for making just a few dietary tweaks (by adding foods that taste good besides!). So, let’s get into it.

How to Improve Brain Health

To cut to the chase, the bottom line is, a healthy diet is known to increase the production of neurons. 

The more connections there are between our neurons, the better our learning abilities, memory retention, and thinking.

The key? We must include the right foods to gain these benefits.

Read on to learn more about six foods to include to help improve brain health.

Eat Dark Chocolate

When we think of health, chocolate isn’t usually what comes to mind.

It should come to mind more often, however, because cocoa consists of components such as flavonoids, which have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

This promotes increased cerebral blood flow, oxygenation and improves brain health. It also lowers oxidative stress on the brain, which plays a significant role in age-related cognitive decline and other brain diseases.

Additionally, studies have shown that chocolate is an effective mood booster.

Dark chocolate is the better option as it contains large amounts of cocoa (as much as 70% or more), compared to milk chocolate.  

Improve Brain Health: Drink Coffee

Coffee is another healthy choice to help improve brain health.

Caffeine has several health benefits for your brain.

For instance, caffeine increases the brain’s capacity to process information and perform complex brain activity.

Also, coffee blocks the production of adenosine (which makes us sleepy), so it increases alertness. Coffee also reduces our risk of cognitive decline and other brain diseases, and therefore contributes to improved brain health.

Eat Your Cruciferous Vegetables

Another group of brain foods to consider including in your diet to improve brain health is cruciferous vegetables. Cruciferous vegetables include kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower. But broccoli is often thought to be the best choice of all.

Broccoli is filled with Vitamin K, which benefits our nervous system, improves memory, and protects the brain.

This superfood also contains glucosinolates and this breaks down into isothiocyanates when ingested.

Isothiocyanates lower our risk of neurodegenerative diseases.

Fortunately, several fun and tasty recipes are available to help us find creative ways of including cruciferous vegetables in our diet.

Improve Brain Health: Eat Oily and Fatty Fish

It doesn’t sound healthy, but oily and fatty fish are a great source of nutrients for our brain as it promotes healthy brain function.

Oily and fatty fish, such as salmon, trout, sardines, and mackerel, contain omega-3 fatty acids. This allows for the effective circulation of blood to the brain.

It also increases our learning and boosts memory.

Omega-3 fatty acids also enhance cognitive well-being and reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and dementia at a later age.

For younger children, oily and fatty fish prevents the onset of ADHD and helps improve their attention.

Improve Brain Health: Eat More Eggs

The benefits of eggs are often underestimated.

Eggs contain Vitamins B-6, B-12, choline, and folic acid. These nutrients found in eggs delay cognitive decline and prevent brain shrinkage.

Frequent consumption of eggs causes the reduction of homocysteine, which is associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment.

Choline, found in yolks, prevents brain inflammation and releases the memory-boosting chemical acetylcholine.

Pregnant women are encouraged to consume eggs as they help support development of an unborn child’s brain. Eggs also reduce stress and anxiety.

This is because eggs consist of tryptophan, an amino acid that assists in the production of serotonin.  

Go Nuts for Nuts!

Seeds and nuts are not only great healthy snacks, but they also contain several health benefits. For instance, they boost gut health, manage weight, and are rich in antioxidants.

Nuts play a role in ensuring that our brain is healthy.

Vitamin E protects the brain from slow cognitive decline. It also reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Nuts such as pistachio, walnuts, and almonds contain antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties that improve memory and contribute to normal brain function.

Additionally, nuts are known to improve mental alertness, improving concentration. 

The magnesium and zinc found in nuts help the body relax and improve sleep quality. Quality sleep further improves brain health by maintaining the pathways that let us create new memories. It also improves brain functions. 

How to Improve Brain Health: Eat These Six Foods

It is important to include brain health in our efforts to get healthier.

This list of foods to improve brain health can help if we make an effort to include them in our healthy diet. There are other ways to improve brain health, too, so be sure to explore all the options. 

You may also like to learn about emulsifiers and weight gain. Let us know what you think!

Thank you as always for reading.

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KindCompassCoach

Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Her career includes 20+ years as a health care executive and 15 years (and counting) as a consultant. The common thread through Joan’s professional life has been a commitment to lead, mentor and coach current and future leaders, and women from all walks of life. KindCompassCoach provides information and advice grounded in Joan’s personal experience; however, all articles are backed by research and provide facts and advice from a wide variety of experts. Joan also serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me.